Get Mapping in the New Year

We’ve gotten used to seeing maps showing the spread and impact of COVID-19 and its variants. Did you know there is a free tool available to anyone that maps many factors related to the pandemic? It is available from PolicyMap, which uses publicly available data. If this sort of digital scholarship is of further interest, there is also public edition of PolicyMap which enables you to do 3-D mapping using public datasets on all kinds of topics.

PolicyMap has more advanced features associated with its licensed content, but the public edition is a very powerful mapping resource. They have tutorials to help get you started, such as the quick start video of its revamped interface. They also offer a regular schedule of Webinars, including those on “Learning the basics of PolicyMap.”

Mapping is a great way to get started doing digital scholarship projects. Another tool popular in the digital scholarship community is ArcGIS Online. It, too, allows anyone to get their feet wet by offering a freely available version. You just need to login after creating a public account. This option is open to individuals, and “allows you to create, store, and manage maps, apps, and data and share them with others. You also get access to content shared by Esri and GIS users around the world.”